Confrontation
by simply-aly
Summary: Fears are not always rational.


It's very subtle at first, and no one else seems to think anything of it in the beginning. She does it so mechanically sometimes, he wonders if she's even aware of her actions. He would even find it comical if he couldn't see the fear and panic in her eyes when someone unintentionally thwarts her careful efforts.

Elijah can't say if it starts with what he first notices, but as far as he's aware, it starts with open doors and cracked windows.

Whenever the little blonde is in a room, she always has to make sure there is a clearly seen and accessible doorway or an open window. Soon, this quirk expands to a clear avoidance to small rooms, and eventually, she just seems to be uncomfortable and way too on edge to be as 'fine,' as she is often fond of insisting she is.

Elijah catches Elena's worried expressions and Stefan's concerned looks. He even takes note of Damon's attempt at confronting her, but she brushes them off with an "I'm fine" that is easily betrayed by the panic in her eyes.

One day, she very nearly breaks down at the boarding house, right in front of Elijah's eyes, and he decides right then that he's sick of being uncharacteristically passive. So, when she runs out the back door of the boarding house, he tracks her to her place of residence. (And, lucky for him, he had had the foresight to have the sheriff invite him in on his second day in Mystic Falls.) He then rests leisurely on the roof outside her window and waits for her to notice him.

On any other occasion, he would display no guilt at barging in, but he suspects the cause of her fear and knows that she needs to be the one to feel in control.

She opens her bedroom door and flings herself onto the bed just seconds after he settles down outside her window. With his enhanced vampire hearing, he hears her mother coming up the stairs. "Caroline," the sheriff calls up tentatively, "are you okay?"

Elijah watches Caroline freeze for a second before calling back, "I'm fine, Mom!"

The footsteps on the stairs continue, which forces Caroline to quickly shut her bedroom door to stop her mother's inquisition. That action has her immediately turning to the window where she finally takes notice of him.

Her eyes widen marginally in shock, but otherwise, she remains calm as she walks over to him. She pushes the window up and stares blankly at him.

When it becomes clear to him that she is not going to speak, he takes it upon himself to ask the question. "Are you going to invite me in, Caroline?"

She tries to hide the quiver in her voice as she speaks, but Elijah hears it regardless. "Do you really need an invitation?" she asks, "because we both know mine won't help you if you do."

The problem with new vampires, Elijah long ago decided, is that they try to be so damn _logical_ at times—and really, when has being a vampire ever been logical? "I will not enter your bedroom without your permission," he states plainly.

She gives him the smallest hint of a smile and nods. "Okay, then; you may come in, Elijah."

The words spoken, he wastes no time.

She sits casually on her bed, and he positions himself aloofly on the opposite end. "Start talking," he demands.

She looks at him with confusion written all over her face. "You came to me, not the other way around," she says. "I thought you were the one who was supposed to do the talking."

None of them really has time to deal with her dancing around the subject, and Elijah knows this, so he goes for the metaphorical jugular.

He closes the window.

She rushes to reopen it, but he's faster than her and blocks her path; and when she goes for the door, he effortlessly blocks that too.

The panic that fills her eyes is almost tangible in the air. "I can't…you need to—why are you doing this to me?"

"Say the words, Caroline," he presses. "Tell me _why_, and I'll let you open the window again."

She suppresses a whimper as she bites her lip. "I can't—I don't—I'm fine."

Elijah sighs as he guides the young vampire to the center of the room. He sits on the bed and looks at her carefully. "No, you're not fine."

She gains a little bravery and crosses her arms over her chest. "I don't want to talk about it," she informs him, her voice strong and steady.

But this time, Elijah notices the trembling in her hands.

"I don't know what they did to you—I can only guess—but I can tell you, I've seen other, _stronger,_ vampires break under far less."

That he _knows_ seems to surprise her. "You have?"

Elijah nods. "You are not _weak_ for wanting to know you aren't trapped, you're not _weak_ for being scared. The only thing that is making you weak is yourself and your unwillingness to talk about it."

Miraculously, that seems to get through to her, and she tells him everything that happened to her that night he sent Jonah to assist in her rescue. Every moment of pain, she relayed to him as she wept silently.

In the end, when her tale is over and there is nothing left for her to say, Elijah speaks. "I promise I won't let it happen to you ever again, Caroline."

And she believes him.

-x-

Fast forward five hundred years, and Elijah walks into his bedroom to find the window open. It was never something he could cure her of, and it disappointed him because he had thought she was doing better after he got her away from the death and drama that seemed to cycle through Mystic Falls.

She had stopped fearing strangers after the first seventy-five years, stopped freezing at the sight of guns after the first hundred. As far as he knew, she never panicked when she was in a closed room anymore. But even with all that progress, she refused to sleep with the window closed.

He cannot say why it is grating on his nerves this night, but when he gets in bed and finds that she's still awake, he can't stop the question from verbalizing itself.

When she hears it, the sleepy smile on her face vanishes instantly to be replaced by a cold mask that Elijah hasn't seen since Tyler's death, hundreds of years before.

She doesn't need any prompting to answer the question this time, but her voice is so meek, he almost doesn't recognize her. "I'm scared," she whispers.

"Of what?" he asks. "I know you remember what I promised you all those years ago."

Caroline nods. Vampires _never_ forget a promise. "I'm afraid that…that if I get better—if I no longer need you anymore like that—then you'll leave."

The fear in her eyes is more real than he's ever seen it, stronger and more real, even, than that night back when he forced her admittance out of her in Mystic Falls. It's the fear in her eyes that relays to him just how serious this is for her.

"So…what you're saying, is that you're perfectly capable of sleeping with the window closed…you just don't do it because you think I'll leave you if you aren't afraid of torture anymore."

Caroline nods slowly, shamefully even, and Elijah sees the tears in her eyes.

He cannot help the sigh that escapes his lips as he gets in bed. He kisses her forehead and inhales the vanilla scent of her hair. After a moment, he pulls back, and it's only then that he gives her his most serious look.

"Caroline," he says, "shut the damn window and get back in bed."


End file.
